If I but thought one response were madeTo one perhaps returning to the worldThis tongue of flame would cease to flickerBut since, up from these depthsNo one has yet returned alive, if I hear trueWithout fear of infamy, I’ll answer

​1. Let us go then, you and I,

​2. When the evening is spread out against the sky

​3. Like a patient etherized upon a table;

​4. Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

​5. The muttering retreats

​6. Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

​7. And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

​8. Streets that follow like a tedious argument

​9. Of insidious intent

​10. To lead you to an overwhelming question ...

​11. Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

​12. Let us go and make our visit.

​

​13. In the room the women come and go

​14. Talking of Michelangelo.

​

​15. There will be time, time will be time

​16. To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet:

​17. There will be time to murder and create,

​18. And time for all the works and days of hands

​19. That lift and drop a question on your plate;

​20. Time for you and time for me,

​21. And time yet for a hundred indecisions,

​22. And for a hundred visions and revisions,

​23. Before the taking of a toast and tea.

​

​24. In the room the women come and go

​25. Talking of Michelangelo

​

​26. And indeed there will be time

​27. To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

​28. Time to turn back and descend the stair,

​29. With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —

​30. (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)

​31. My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

​32. My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —

​33. (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)

​34. Do I dare

​35. Disturb the universe?

​36. In a minute there is time

​37. For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

​

​38. For I have known them all already, known them all:

​39. Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,

​40. I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;

​41. I know the voices dying with a dying fall

​42. Beneath the music from a farther room.

​43. So how should I presume?

​

​44. And I have known the eyes already, known them all—

​45. The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,

​46. And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,

​47. When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,

​48. Then how should I begin

​49. To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?

​50. And how should I presume?

​

​51. And I have known the arms already, known them all—

​52. Arms that are braceleted and white and bare

​53. (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)

​54. Is it perfume from a dress

​55. That makes me so digress?

​56. Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.

​57. And should I then presume?

​58. And how should I begin?

​

​59. I should have been a pair of ragged claws

​60. Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

​

​61. But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,

​62. Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,

​63. I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;

​64. I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,

​65. And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

​66. And in short, I was afraid.

​

​67. And would it have been worth it, after all,

​68. After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,

​69. Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,

​70. Would it have been worth while,

​71. To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

​72. To have squeezed the universe into a ball

​73. To roll it towards some overwhelming question,

​74. To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,

​75. Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—

​76. If one, settling a pillow by her head

​77. Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;

​78. That is not it, at all.

​

​79. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

​80. Am an attendant lord, one that will do

​81. To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

​82. Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

​83. Deferential, glad to be of use,

​84. Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

​85. Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

​86. At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—

​87. Almost, at times, the Fool.

​

​88. I grow old ... I grow old ...

​89. I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

​

​90. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

​91. I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

​92. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

​

​93. I do not think that they will sing to me.

​

​94. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

​95. Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

​96. When the wind blows the water white and black.

​97. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

​98. By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

​99. Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

What does Prufrock’s anticipation of others’ comments NOT show about him? (lines 30 and 33)

A

He has become a shell of a person with no real thoughts of his own.

B

He seeks approval, especially regarding his outward appearance.

C

He second-guesses his own opinions in favor of others’ opinions.

D

He desires to take down their claims, but doesn’t know how to exactly.